That's enough yardwork for today. Since getting up this morning, I've mowed the lawn, cleaned up the edges with the string trimmer, blew the yard waste with the leaf blower, and bagged up five large yard bags full of leaves. The yard's in pretty good shape now -- the retaining wall still needs work, some of the brush near the property line needs to be cut back, and a dogwood in the front yard needs to have the ivy cut off it. Other than that, I think the yard's looking great. It seems that the bees that had taken up residence in the ivy in the front yard have vacated -- when I was cutting the ivy back, there was no sign of any bees. But that's enough work for today -- the maintenance is taken care of, and the rest of the "project" work can come soon enough.

Combined with the long and somewhat stressful week I've had at the office, I can use a relaxing afternoon. I've got some housework planned: wash a sink full of dirty dishes, finish my laundry, change the air filters. Plus, I need to prepare tomorrow's Sunday School lesson. I should be able to take care of all that before heading out to the races in Winston-Salem this evening. Even if I attack those jobs at the leisurely pace I intend to set for myself for the rest of the afternoon.

On the other plus side, I think that my yardwork today counts as my daily dose of exercise, which I've been pretty much neglecting for the past week or two.